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PDFelement, developed by Wondershare Technology Group Co., LTD, is a versatile PDF editor available on iOS/iPadOS, Android, macOS, and Windows. It offers various pricing options, including individual, team, and education plans, as well as bundles for different operating systems. For those who prefer to avoid subscriptions, the app also provides a lifetime purchase option. You can try PDFelement Lite for free on the iPad, and it’s completely free on Android. This review focuses on the paid version of PDFelement for the iPad.
PDFelement allows you to import PDFs from Files, as well as zipped files, videos, and audio. However, it currently doesn’t support importing Word documents or slides, which is a significant limitation. Most modern PDF readers can convert these formats to PDF, so it’s a feature we hope to see added soon.
You can also import documents from Photos or by scanning them. The app lets you select up to 100 photos at once, though it opens each photo individually, which can be inconvenient. The scanning feature uses the iPadOS native scanner, allowing you to scan or add documents from your Photos library.
Highlighting, underlining, and striking out text in your PDFs is straightforward with PDFelement. The highlighter tool is particularly well-designed, as it goes behind your text, preventing it from dimming when layered. Each of these tools comes with a customizable color palette, although the current color-picking system could be more user-friendly. You can edit the six default colors, but adding more would be a welcome improvement.
The app allows you to handwrite comments on your PDFs using a ballpoint pen tool that offers a smooth writing experience with no lag and excellent palm rejection. You can customize the pen’s color, thickness, and opacity, making it sufficient for most PDF annotation needs.
The eraser tool in PDFelement works on handwritten notes, allowing you to erase by pixel or stroke. However, it doesn’t work on other annotation tools, which might be limiting for some users. The eraser size can be adjusted from 10 to 64pt.
You can add text directly onto your PDF pages in either text or callout boxes, with options to choose font, size, and color. While PDFelement doesn’t support custom fonts, it offers a decent selection to choose from. However, the text added to your PDFs may pixelate when zoomed in, which isn’t ideal for a digital workflow. Vector characters are generally preferred over raster ones for better clarity.
PDFelement supports adding comments, which are essential for detailed PDF reviews. You can customize the color of your comments and easily modify or delete them. However, unlike Adobe Acrobat Reader, PDFelement doesn’t indicate when a note has an annotation, making it difficult to find them later.
The app also allows you to add shapes such as squares, circles, straight lines, and arrows, with options to customize their color, thickness, and opacity. While shapes are not commonly used in PDF reading, they add a note-taking element to the app.
You can insert images from your Photos or take a new one with your camera. The app allows you to resize, rotate, and crop images, though more advanced image editing features would be appreciated. PDFelement also offers a tab dedicated to images, but it could benefit from additional features.
PDFelement includes a selection of stamps you can add to your PDFs, with options to create up to ten custom stamps by adding text, date, and time. You can also choose the shape and color of your stamp or import one from your Photos library.
The app provides tools for creating digital signatures, allowing you to adjust the pen thickness and color. While it’s easy to create a signature, the app wisely doesn’t save temporary signatures, adding an extra layer of security in case your device falls into the wrong hands.
The lasso tool in PDFelement only works on annotations, meaning you can’t extract or move sections of your PDF across pages. This limitation might be frustrating for users who need more flexibility in their PDF editing.
PDF editing in PDFelement is straightforward, with the ability to adjust text attributes like font, size, and color. However, the app doesn’t support the iPad’s cursor movement gesture, which could speed up the editing process.
Searching within a PDF is simple, with results highlighted and organized by page. The app also allows you to rearrange, rotate, delete, copy, and share individual pages, making document management more flexible.
You can add blank pages to your PDFs, though the current options are limited to plain paper. The ability to add other paper templates in the future would be a nice enhancement.
PDFelement also offers scanning capabilities, allowing you to scan documents into your PDF or create scans from images in your Photos library. However, the app lacks optical character recognition (OCR), meaning you can’t interact with or search your scans, which is a significant drawback compared to other PDF readers.
The app supports bookmarking pages, which is crucial for navigating long PDFs. You can edit document outlines and quickly access annotated pages. PDFelement also tracks all annotations, allowing you to clear them if needed.
Under the app’s additional options, you can customize how documents are displayed, save copies within PDFelement, and password-protect your files. While there’s no way to recover a forgotten password, this can be a positive security feature depending on your needs.
PDFelement can optimize PDF sizes, with five quality options available. The amount of size reduction varies by document, but the quality remains high, even after optimization.
The app allows you to convert PDFs into eleven different formats, though it struggles with Excel conversions. There’s a dedicated folder for converted documents, making them easy to find. However, PDFelement currently only converts images to PDF, which is a limitation that we hope will be addressed in future updates.
PDFelement lets you add or remove watermarks, crop pages, and export documents. However, the app requires you to manually save changes, which is unusual for an iPad app and could lead to lost work if you forget.
The app supports multiple instances, allowing you to open the same document twice, and it offers basic note-taking features with several paper templates. However, the lasso tool’s limitations in selecting and moving notes might hinder your workflow.
Overall, PDFelement is a solid PDF reader with simple editing capabilities. Its one-time purchase option makes it an attractive choice for those looking for a cost-effective solution. However, the app could benefit from more advanced features and greater responsiveness to make it a top contender in the PDF reader market.
